March 23

Brenda J. Allen, associate dean and professor of communication, was a visiting scholar at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, March 15-21. She presented a keynote speech "In the Spirit of Organizing: Civil Rights and Social Justice 45 Years after the Mississippi Freedom Summer" for a week-long symposium commemorating the historic voting rights campaign in the South in the 1960s.

Anita Glicken, MSW, professor of pediatrics, will receive the Distinguished Service Award at the Paragon Awards ceremony at the American Academy of Physician Assistants (AAPA) conference in San Diego next month. This award, which is not given every year, is conferred upon non-physician assistants who have rendered distinguished service to the PA profession. It includes an Honorary Lifetime Membership to the AAPA.

March 12

Drs. Jessica Tyler, left, Chandrima Das, right, Scott Lucia and Kirk Hansen have a paper in Nature that was published online on March 8. This paper describes a new histone modification, or epigenetic mark, they have discovered in humans that is abundant in human cancer. The mark appears to become more abundant as tumor grade increases.

Tyler is leader of the University of Colorado Cancer Center Molecular Oncology Program. Hansen is manager of the UCCC Proteomics Core. Lucia is co-director of the UCCC Pathology Core. Das is a postdoc in Tyler’s lab.

March 2

Christopher Koziol, associate professor of architecture, has an article in the inaugural issue of Preservation Education & Research (Volume One, 2008), “Historic Preservation Ideology: A Critical Mapping of Contemporary Heritage Policy Discourse.” The new scholarly publication is a blind peer-reviewed annual journal under the auspices of the National Council for Preservation Education.

Jori Leszczynski, DVM, DACLAM, has accepted the position of university veterinarian and director of clinical and academic programs in the Center for Comparative Medicine and Office of Laboratory Animal Resources at UC Denver.

Prior to coming to UCDenver, Leszczynski was director of the Animal Facility at National Jewish where she did a great job with their facility and guided them through AAALAC accreditation. She began her position here at UC Denver on Feb. 9. Her email address is Jori.Leszczynski@ucdenver.edu and her phone number is 303-724-3987.

Sally Nathenson-Mejia contributed an entry to the NCCREST LeadCast blog titles “Creating a Relationship between Professional Development and English Language Learners.” The URL to access the blog is: http://www.niusileadscape.org/bl/. The piece discusses the PD work that Sally, Mark Clarke, Alan Davis and Ruth Brancard are involved in with DPS and New America Schools.

Feb. 23

Jake Adam York, associate professor of English, was chosen this year's Summer Poet in Residence at the University of Mississippi. For a month this summer, he will live in a house owned by the university in Oxford, Mississippi, with a small stipend to help defray the costs of living and travel expenses. In addition to having time to work on his poems, he will be involved with the MFA program by giving poetry readings and visiting classes one to two times a week.

Feb. 18

Drs. Jill Litt, Elaine Belansky and Jini Puma each received Colorado Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (CCTSI) Community Engagement pilot grants for their respective projects: gardens for growing health communities, physical education and immigrant health. In addition Drs. Liz Gilbert and Teresa Sharp received CCTSI funding for their contribution to a clinical study on early onset childhood obesity and chronic disease.

CCTSI is a collaborative enterprise between University of Colorado Denver, University of Colorado at Boulder, six affiliated Hospitals and health care organizations, and multiple community organizations. For more information visit http://ctsa1.uchsc.edu/Pages/index.aspx.

Feb. 11

Drs. Jen Leiferman and Nancy West received the Colorado Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (CCTSI) pilot awards in Child and Maternal Health.

Leiferman was recognized with the $20,000 junior faculty award for her project “The Effect of an Antenatal Physical Activity Pilot Intervention on Maternal Stress, Biomarkers and Preterm Delivery.” West received $20,000 through the mentored-faculty award for her project “The Environmental Factors in Early Life, DNA Methylation, and Fetal Origins of Diseases Across the Lifespan.”

CCTSI is a collaborative enterprise between University of Colorado Denver, University of Colorado at Boulder, six affiliated Hospitals and health care organizations, and multiple community organizations with resources to promote research and training that will advance health care and improve the public health. For more information visit http://ctsa1.uchsc.edu/Pages/index.aspx.

Feb. 9

The Children’s Hospital held its annual medical staff dinner Jan. 30 presenting the following awards:

• Century Award - Timothy Bernard, MD, assistant professor of pediatrics
• Excellence in Quality and Patient Safety Award - Emily Dobyns, MD, associate professor of pediatrics; Jenny Reese, MD, senior instructor of pediatrics; Beth Wathen, RN; Jen Goode, RN; Traci Link, RN; Royanne Lichliter, BSN; and Jodi Thrasher, FNP
• James Strain Award - Ronald Sokol, MD, vice chair and professor of pediatrics and division chief of gastroenterology
• Outstanding Service Awards - Deborah Hayes, PhD, and Daniel J. Feiten, MD
• Exceptional Service Award - Donald Kortz, Immediate Past Chair of The Children’s Hospital Board of Directors.

 

Feb. 6

Arunprakash Karunanithi (PI), assistant research professor in civil engineering, Civil Engineering Professor Lynn Johnson and Brian Muller, assistant professor of planning and design in the College of Architecture and Planning, received a University Scholarship Team grant for the project “Urban Sustainability Assessment: Integrating Geographical Information Systems (GIS) – Agent Based Modeling (ABM) – Information Theory Based Metrics.” This project aims to integrate GIS, ABM, and Information Theory methods for sustainability assessment, and it will partially support a PhD/MS student in civil engineering.

On Jan. 30, the UC Denver student chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) received a $1,500 donation from Zimmerman Metals, Inc. to be used in support of their participation in the 2009 ASCE Rocky Mountain Steel Bridge Competition to be held April 2-4 in Provo, Utah. The ASCE faculty advisor is Stephan Durham, at left, assistant professor of civil engineering.

 

 

Feb. 4

In the first round of awards for 2009, a total of $495,000 has been awarded for UCCC Seed Grants. The pilot projects run by the grantees are funded with the support of a National Cancer Institute P20 grant on Cancer and Aging, the Cancer Center Support Grant, and the American Cancer Society. Grantees include:

2009 Cancer & Aging Grants: $255,000

• Dr. Anna Barón & Patricia Valverde (Developmental Therapeutics): $30,000
• Dr. Mehdi Fini (Developmental Therapeutics): $20,000
• Dr. James DeGregori (Cancer Cell Biology): $30,000
• Dr. John Cambier (Immunology & Immunotherapy): $30,000
• Dr. Tom Denberg (AMC Cancer Prevention & Control): $25,000
• Drs. Catherine Jankowski and Betsy Risendal: $35,000
• Dr. Kristin Kilbourn: $10,000
• Dr. Al Marcus (Program Leader, AMC Cancer Prevention & Control): $20,000
• Dr. Robert Sclafani (Program Leader, Cancer Cell Biology): $20,000
• Dr. Dylan Taatjes (Molecular Oncology): $15,000
• Dr. Deborah Wuttke (Molecular Oncology): $20,000

 

CCSG Seed Grants: $60,000

• Dr. Natalie Ahn (Molecular Oncology): $20,000
• Dr. Antonio Jimeno (Developmental Therapeutics): $20,000
• Dr. Monica Ransom (Fellow, Dr. Jessica Tyler Sponsor): $10,000
• Dr. Jeffrey Knipstein (Fellow, Dr. Jeannette Davies Sponsor): $10,000

 

ACS IRG Seed Grants: $180,000

• Dr. Jena French: $20,000
• Dr. Michael Weyant (Lung/Head & Neck Cancers): $20,000
• Dr. Bolin Liu (Cancer Cell Biology): $30,000
• Dr. Stephen Malkoski (Lung/Head & Neck Cancers): $20,000
• Dr. Shi-Long Lu: $30,000
• Dr. Allen Waziri (Immunology & Immunotherapy): $30,000
• Dr. Scott Oliver (Developmental Therapeutics): $30,000

Feb. 2

Willem van Vliet, professor of planning and director of the Children, Youth and Environments Center for Research and Design, received $3,000 in Teaching Funds from CU Boulder’s Center to Advance Research and Teaching in the Social Sciences, to support his project “Designing Communities with Multicultural Youth: Using Multimedia Methods for Social Change.”

 

Jan. 26

Killing for Coal: America's Deadliest Labor War by Thomas Andrews, assistant professor of history (Harvard University Press, 2008), will be awarded the George Perkins Marsh Award from the American Society for Environmental history for best book of the year.

Jan. 23

Austin Allen, associate professor and chair of Landscape Architecture, presented a workshop on January 19 as part of the 2009 Martin Luther King Jr. Day observances at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine. Allen’s two-part workshop, “In the Site of the Unseen, Unrealized and Unthinkable,” featured “The Unseen,” an examination of the documentary film project on the impact of Frederick Law Olmsted on the American landscape, particularly as one defines diversity and the African-American cultural experience, and “The Unrealized and Unthinkable,” a reflection upon efforts to rebuild and rethink New Orleans and the Bayou Bienvenue Wetlands and its full circle back to Frederick Law Olmsted.

Abbie Beacham, assistant professor of psychology, is first author on a Society of Behavioral Medicine policy brief that was recently released. The brief is important from a policy formation standpoint and furthering the clinical health psychologists discipline. The brief encourages integration of health psychologists into primary care settings to foster health behavior change. It has been forwarded to Department of Health and Human Services and the Obama Administration health care constituency. (View policy brief)

 

Noah Eli Gordon, English instructor, was honored with this year's Poetry Center Book Award for his recent book, Novel Pictorial Noise. The Poetry Center at San Francisco State University gives this award annually to an outstanding book of poetry published in the previous year. (More information)

A photo of the Trailer Wrap project by Lynn Lickteig, director of Visual Resources and Arts Professional IV, won Second Place in the national 2008 NeighborWorks America Photo Contest. The prize is a $1,000 grant for Thistle Community Housing in Boulder. NeighborWorks America is a national nonprofit organization created by the U.S. Congress to provide financial support, technical assistance and training for community-based revitalization efforts. Learn more about it at the Web site.

Jan. 19

The fall 2008 issue of Architect Colorado, the publication of the Colorado chapter of the American Institute of Architects, features three articles of particular interest to the College of Architecture and Planning. The profile of Joe Colistra, senior instructor of architecture, notes his selection as AIA Colorado 2008 Young Architect of the Year. Architecture lecturers Brad Tomecek and Chris Herr are featured in the article “Inscribed, Grounded and Floating: Two Architects Set an Ambitious Course.”

N.Y. Chang, left, from the College of Engineering and Applied Science, gave a presentation Jan. 12 on “Rocking Hinge—a New Seismic Isolation Device” to the Seismic Performance Committee at the Transportation Research Board annual meeting in Washington, D.C.

 

 

J. John Cohen, MD, PhD, a UC Denver School of Medicine professor and Mini Med School founder was one of four university recipients of the 2009 Thomas Jefferson Award, one of the university’s highest honors. See the release.

In December, College of Engineering's David Mays, left, and Jason Ren received an award from the Advanced Technology Grant Program administered by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE).

This grant supports a laboratory study on using crumb rubber from recycled tires for storm water pollution control; it will support a master’s and an undergraduate student.

College of Engineering's Jason Ren, PI, and faculty members Anu Ramaswami, right, and Timberley Roane or the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences received a 2008-09 University Scholarship Team grant for the project “Direct Electricity Production from Household Waste Using Microbial Fuel Cells.”

This project aims to develop a patentable microbial fuel cell system to convert household waste into electricity; it will support a civil engineering PhD student and a master’s student from biology.

Denise Weber, assistant director of finance, was honored with a Spot Award for excellence in fiscal responsibility by the Office of University Controller. Weber took the initiative to consolidate travel expense information for CAP into a single data source.

 

 

Jan. 14

Jay Gershen, DDS, PhD, vice chancellor for external affairs of the University of Colorado Denver, has been chosen chair of the board of the Aurora Economic Development Council. He succeeds Marc Parker, senior vice president – division manager of U.S. Bank, who served as chair for 2008. Gershen will oversee the board effective immediately for a one-year term. This will be Gershen’s ninth year serving on the Aurora Economic Development Council board of directors.

"'Selling Out’ Taken To New Levels: The Evolving Relationship Between Brands, Artists and Record Labels” by Storm Gloor, assistant professor of Music & Entertainment Industry Studies at the UC Denver College of Arts & Media, was published in the 2008 Music & Entertainment Industry Educators Association (MEIEA) Journal, a peer-reviewed scholarly work published annually.

Gloor also has created a new digital music class, Music & Entertainment Business in the Digital Age, which begins Jan. 20. The course focuses on current technology, terminology and business models shaping the industry, preparing UC Denver College of Arts & Media students for entry into an evolving music and entertainment career.

Jan. 12

Farah A. Ibrahim, professor of counseling psychology and counselor education in the School of Education and Human Development, is serving on a national task force for Society for Counseling Psychology of APA as co-chair of “Taking Action Against Racism” (TAAR) in the schools. Ibrahim will present “The experiences and impact of ‘isms’ in the schools” at the APA’s National Multicultural Counseling Summit in New Orleans on Jan. 16.

Mortal Lessons, the latest documentary by David Liban, assistant professor of the College of Arts and Media, has won an award at the Honolulu International Film Festival. It also has been accepted for distribution with Fanlight Productions, which markets films to educational institutions all over the world. The Denver premiere of Mortal Lessons will be 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 26, at Starz Film Center on the Auraria Campus.

 

The Business School at UC Denver has chosen accounting professor Bruce Neumann as the associate dean of programs. Neumann, left, has worked for the university since 1984 and has been director of the accounting program since 2000. 

“Bruce Neumann’s leadership experience at the college and university has been wide-ranging,” said Sueann Ambron, dean of the Business School. “Beyond his director of accounting role, he led the team to maintain AACSB International accreditation of the accounting program, ensuring that the program provides teaching and scholarship in accounting at the highest levels.”

Jan. 7

The work of Michael Greene, left, assistant professor of biology, was featured Jan. 7 on a nationally televised show (PBS) called National Geographic’s Wild Chronicles. The segment was conceived, written and directed by Hans Rosenwinkel, an assistant professor in the Department of Theatre, Film and Video Production, College of Arts and Media.

The segment described some of Greene’s research on the regulation of harvester ant colonies. The work covered is being performed using western harvester ants found at a field site in downtown Denver. Greene performs these experiments with the help of undergraduate students. About eight students have assisted in various projects at the site the past few years.

The segment also highlights Rosenwinkel’s macro photography of the ants as well as an accessible script accurately describing the research. 

 Jan. 5

After more than 20 years of service. Paul Bunn, MD, stepped down as Cancer Center Director on Friday, Jan. 1. Tim Byers, MD, at left, has agreed to take the position as interim director as Richard Krugman, MD, dean of the UC Denver School of Medicine, completes a national search for a permanent director.

As interim director, Byers’ approach will be to lead the Cancer Center via a strong "transition team" of associate directors and program leaders.

“My goal is to make this transition time a good preparation for a new permanent director. UCCC is in very good shape both financially and organizationally,” Byers says. “I have no plans to make any changes in Programs or Cores apart from changes we will need to make based on our ongoing monitoring and quality assurance processes.”